A staple of many teenagers lives will soon be no more. AOL Instant Messaging service is shutting down. AOL announced today that AIM will be no longer as of December 15th.

In a time when you received your internet on a free AOL disc, patiently waited for dial up to get an internet connection, AIM was huge. This is how you connected to your friends before everyone had a smartphone and group text messaging. For those moments when you could not be bothered, you put up your own unique away message. Your away message was how you let your friends know how you were feeling before Facebook existed.

AIM is officially a part of the good old days. While most of us have not used AIM in years, it is still a bit sad to see a part of our childhood go away. It makes you long for that time, when people still communicated. You knew the person you were messaging on AIM; they were your friends, family or your crush.

Its not the same today. Now we have social media where we create accounts and collect hundreds of friends like it is some sort of middle school popularity contest. Most of these "friends" are people we have not seen or spoken to in years. Sadly many people use social media as a place to post about themselves and their make believe life. It is not about the relationship or friendship you have with others. That is why this news stings a little because as on December 15th we all know that AIM will not BRB.

In honor of AIM, comment on our Facebook page and tell us your AIM username. Come on, you know you still remember it.